Analysis of A Birthday Trifle

Henry Kendall 1839 (Australia) – 1882 (Sydney)



Here in this gold-green evening end,
While air is soft and sky is clear,
What tender message shall I send
To her I hold so dear?
What rose of song with breath like myrrh,
And leaf of dew and fair pure beams
Shall I select and give to her—
The lady of my dreams?
Alas! the blossom I would take,
The song as sweet as Persian speech,
And carry for my lady’s sake,
Is not within my reach.
I have no perfect gift of words,
Or I would hasten now to send
A ballad full of tunes of birds
To please my lovely friend.

But this pure pleasure is my own,
That I have power to waft away
A hope as bright as heaven’s zone
On this her natal day.
May all her life be like the light
That softens down in spheres divine,
“As lovely as a Lapland night,”
All grace and chastened shine!


Scheme ABABCDCDEFEFGAGA HIHIJKJK
Poetic Form
Metre 10111101 11110111 11010111 101111 11111111 01110111 11010110 010111 01010111 01111101 0101111 110111 11101111 11110111 01011111 111101 11110111 111101101 01111101 110101 11011101 11010101 1101011 110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 761
Words 158
Sentences 8
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 16, 8
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 294
Words per stanza (avg) 78
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 14, 2023

47 sec read
81

Henry Kendall

Thomas Henry Kendall was a nineteenth-century Australian author and bush poet, who was particularly known for his poems and tales set in a natural environment setting. more…

All Henry Kendall poems | Henry Kendall Books

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